Deposited latex undergarments



W. J. DORSEY y DEPOSITED LATEX UNDERGARMENTS July 23, 1963 Filed July 1, 1957 FIGB FIG. 2

INVENTOR WILLIAM J. DORSEY ATTORNEY United States Patent O 3,098,486 DEPOSlTED LATEX UNDERGARMENTS William J. Dorsey, Dover, Del., assignor to International Latex Corporation, Dover, Del., a corporation of Delaware Filed July 1, 1957, Ser. No. 669,111 1 Claim. (Cl. 12S-521) This invention relates to relatively thin, ihighly stretchable rubber articles, such as deposited rubber latex girdles or the like, and more particularly to the incorporation or attachment of stress receiving, substantially unstret-chable strips thereto.

When a substantially unstretc'hable strip, such as fabric tape or the like, is attached to a thin, highly stretchable rubber article either by sewing or by adhesion so that a portion of the article is thereby rendered substantially unstretchable, and repeated or continuous stress is applied to the strip, failure of the rubber often occurs in the rubber adjacent the area of attachment of the unstretchable strip even though the area of attachment is reinforced by thickening the area or by incorporating therein a relatively unstretchable fabric.

In accordance with the present invention, it has been found that the incidence of such failures of the rubber adjacent the areas of attachment may be materially reduced if the rubber is reinforced with a relatively stretchable fabric for a ysubstantial distance beyond the areas of attachment of the relatively unstretchable strips. Such reinforcement does not unduly decrease the elasticity of the article or unduly increase the -wall thickness of the article and, in addition to reducing the incidence of failure, also provides reinforcement for stitching. The reinforcement is well adapted to mass production procedures.

The present invention has particular application to the attachment of the relatively unstretchable tapes of slide fasteners or zippers to deposited rubber latex girdles. For this reason, the invention is described hereafter in connection with such articles by reference to the accompanying drawings wherein:

FIG. 1 is a front elevational View of a deposited rubber latex girdle having Ia slide fastener and reinforced garter slots incorporated therein in accordance w-ith the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an elevational view of the portion of the girdle of FIG. 1 containing the slide fastener and showing the slide fastener unfastened with one side folded back to show some of the details thereto.

FIG. 3 is a sectional view, considerably exaggerated, as to thickness, taken on the line 3-3 of FIG. 1.

In the drawings and particularly in FIG. l, there is shown a deposited rubber latex girdle having a downwardly extending waist opening 11, closable, as best shown in FIG. 2, by hooks and eyes 13 and 14, respectively, land a slide fastener generally designated by the reference numeral 15. The opening 11 facilitates the putting on and removal of the girdle 10. The hooks and eyes 13 and 14 provide for an initial closing of the opening 11 to thereby prevent excessive strain being put on the slide fastener.

The slide fastener involves the attachment of relatively unstretchable, stress receiving fabric to the unreinforced rubber body portions 10a of the girdle. The tapes 15a and 15b, to which the fastening elements 15C are secured, as `shown in FIG. 3, must be attached along marginal portions of the unreinforced rubber body 10a adjacent the opening 11.

Similarly, relatively unstretchable tapes 13a and 14a to which the hooks 13 and eyes 14 are secured must be attached to the marginal portions of the unreinforced rubber body 10a of the girdle adjacent the opening 11.

In accordance with the present invention, -a Width of relatively stretchable fabric 18 is secured to the marginal "ice portions of the body 10a of the girdle on each side of the opening 11 so that it extends a substantial distance, at least 1/s or more, as indicatedby the dimension S, beyond the area of attachment of the tapes.

The stretchability of the fabric 18 must be such that when secured to the unreinforced rubber body 10b it will reduce the stretchability of the unreinforced rubber immediately adjacent the area of attachment of the relatively unstretchable tapes 13a, 14a, 15a and 15b to a value intermediate the stretchability of the rubber rendered substantially unstretchable by the tapes and the highly stretchable unreinforced rubber. A knitted nylon fabric has been found to give good results w-hen used for the fabric 18. However, las is well known, a knitted fabric is quite stretchable in one direction and substantially less stretchable in a direction thereto and when used for the fabric 1S must be oriented so that the direction of maximum stretch is in approximately the same direction of the stress applied thereto i.e., approximately 90 to the longitudinal direction of the fastener 15 and opening 11. This direction is indicated by the arrow A-A in FIG. 2.

By way of example, good results have been obtained using a nylon tricot knitted fabric having a maximum elongation of approximately 90% when a load of 1000 grams is -applied to a 1" wide sample thereof. When a single ply of such fabric is embedded in a 1" wide strip of deposited latex of the type and gage (approximately .028) commonly used for the bodies of deposited latex girdles, -it has been found that the elongation of such a composite sample under the same test conditions is approxi-mately 16%. By way of comparison, the elongation of a sample of the deposited latex without the fabric was found to be approximately 66% under the same test conditions. A composite sample of the deposited latex an-d embedded fabric backed with a tape of the type used with zippers was found to have yan elongation of substantially Zero under the same test conditions. From this it can be seen that association of the knitted fabric with the deposited latex film provides an area of intermediate stretchability between the highly stretchable unreinforced deposited latex body of the girdle and the portion of the girdle rendered substantially unstretchable by the `tapes of the zipper.

The relatively stretchable fabric 18 may be convenv iently and effectively secured to the latex body 10a by embedding one or more plies of the fabric in the deposited latex film during the formation thereof. The opening 11 may be cut after the deposited latex film has been cured.

The tapes 13a, 14a, 15a and 15b may be secured to the marginal portions of the girdle body 10a -adjacent the opening 11 by a suitable adhesive or sewn thereto, as shown by the stitches 19 in FIG. 3. A suitable flap 20 may be secured to the tape 14a on the interior of the girdle to protect the wearers body from the hooks and eyes 13 and 14.

While the present invention has been described in connection with a deposited latex girdle -it will be appreciated that the invention is applicable to various unreinforced stretchable rubber articles when it is desired to attach a substantially unstretchable stress receiving strip thereto.

Having described my invention, I claim:

In a figure molding garment having a highly stretchable thin rubber wall, a slide fastener closure positioned in a Slot in said wall, fabric binding tapes to which said slide fastener closure is attached, said tapes being sewed to the marginal portion of the rubber wall surrounding said slot rendering said marginal portion substantially unstretchable, the improvement comprising a relatively `stretchable pliable knitted fabric embedded in said rubber wall during formation thereof and extending from thernarginal portion of said wall where the binding tape is sewed to the rubber wall to beyond the boundaries of said tapes in the marginal portion to provide a zone of intermediate stretch in the garment between the substantially unstretchable closure region and the highly stretchabie body portion. of the garment and to reinforcethe `area wheret-he tapes are attached to said wall, said ernbedded fabric being oriented to provide its maximum stretch in the direction of stress applied thereto.

References Cited in the le of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,365,016 Spanel Dec. 12, 1944 4 Sidnell Sept. 30, 1947 Alderfer Aug. 11, 1953 Rosenberg Aug. 17, 1954 Rosenberg Apr. 12, 1955 Steinberg May 17, 1955 Rosenberg Dec. 13, 1955 Dorsey Sept. 17, 1957 FOREIGN PATENTS Great Britain June 11, 1925 

